attle and two from the frigates on the
flank.

Nelson had won a victory which was quite perfect in reaching his great
aim--the complete destruction of Napoleon's power in Egypt and the East.
Napoleon himself escaped to France, after a campaign in Palestine
followed by a retreat to Egypt. But his army was stranded as surely as
if it had been a wrecked ship, high and dry. Three years after the
Battle of the Nile the remnant of it was rounded up and made to
surrender. Moreover, Malta, the central sea base of the whole
Mediterranean, had meanwhile (1800) fallen into British hands, where,
like Egypt, it remains to this day.

The same year (1801) that saw the French surrender in Egypt saw Nelson
win his second victory, this time in the north. Napoleon (victorious, as
usual, on land, and foiled, as usual, at sea) had tried to ruin British
shipping by shutting it out of every port on the continent of Europe.
This was his "Continental System." It hurt the Continent; for British
ships carried most of the goods used in trade not only between Europe,
Asia, Africa, and America, but also between the different ports on the
European continent itself. Napoleon, however, had no choice but to use
his own land-power, no matter what the cost might be, against British
sea-power. He was encouraged to do this by finding allies in those
countries which had formed the anti-British Armed Neutrality of the North
twenty years before. Russia, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, Prussia, and
the Hansa Towns of Germany, were all glad to hit British sea-power in the
hope of getting its trade for themselves. So the new Alliance arranged
that, as soon as the Baltic ports were clear of ice, the Russian,
Swedish, Danish and Norwegian fleets would join the French and Spanish.

But Nelson was too quick for them. On the 1st of April he led a fleet
along the channel opposite Copenhagen, which is the gateway of the
Baltic. After dark, his trusty flag-captain, Hardy, took a small rowboat
in as close as possible and tried the depths with a pole; for the boat
was so close to the Danish fleet that the splash of the sounding lead on
the end of a line would surely have been heard. By eleven o'clock Nelson
had found out that he could range his own fleet close enough alongside
the Danes. So he sat up all night planning his attack. At seven next
morning he explained it to his captains, and at nine to the pilots and
sailing-masters. Half an hour later the fleet